Eddie Mcguire

There’s a pre-season football stink going on down Melbourne way which is a little hard to decode for those of us who live elsewhere. But here’s the guts of it.

Eddie McGuire is under fire for interviewing Melbourne Demons player Liam Jurrah on his new Fox show Eddie McGuire Tonight (EMT). Criticism has come thick and fast from, among others, Fairfax’s Caroline Wilson, The Australian’s Patrick Smith and the Melbourne Demons club itself.

Jurrah, who hails from a remote NT community, will face court in May on charges relating to a recent incident where he flew to Alice Springs and intervened in a family dispute. Alice Springs police allege an axe and machete were involved in the incident.

Continue reading "Eddie McGuire makes a fair point on indigenous players" »

Wouldn’t it be a wondrous thing if we were all treated like sports stars? Adored, spoiled and treated like gods with a sense of entitlement that knows no bounds.

Never having to pay for a drink or stand in a queue, paid squillions to do what we love, nubile young things throwing themselves at us, wives willing to turn a blind eye and fans eager to defend us to the death no matter how impertinent or obnoxious we behave. Indeed any act of arseclownery is tolerated as long as we perform on the field.

Even if we descend into criminal behaviour, our extensive support network is there to catch us and the ever indulgent public is always eager to give us yet another chance. No behavior, no matter how abhorrent and criminal is going to see us robbed of the opportunity to redeem ourselves.

Continue reading "One rule for sports stars, another for us mere mortals" »

This is not an anti-Eddie piece. Nice guy, by all accounts. It’s not an anti-Melbourne piece either. Nice city, by all accounts too. Very liveable and all that.

This isn’t even a piece written in outrage against Eddie McGuire’s cheap, nasty “land of the felafel” slur against people of Arabic origin in Western Sydney, the sharpest rebuke of which was by young freelance blogger Antoun Issa.

Despite that slur, and the national backlash, and Eddie’s embarrassing half-arsed apology, the fact is most people outside of Melbourne couldn’t give a toss about what Eddie says or thinks about anything. That’s what this piece is about.

Continue reading "He’s Eddie Everywhere but he’s not Eddie Everyone" »